Digital broadband broadcast networks enable end users to receive digital content including video, audio, data, and so forth. Using a mobile terminal, a user may receive digital content over a wireless digital broadcast network. The digital broadcast signal may include signal information, or metadata, which may provide the mobile terminal with information about available digital content, as well as information about the network and other nearby networks.
In the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) context, this metadata may be received by a mobile terminal in the form of Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), collectively referred to as PSI/SI. PSI/SI may be delivered as a series or collection of standardized tables which arrive at a mobile terminal at varying intervals. When information within these tables is updated, new versions of the tables are delivered via the broadcast signal. Mobile terminals, not knowing the arrival time or relevancy of the change, may waste power keeping their radios powered up. Some types of tables may not arrive for up to 30 seconds in some contexts, an intolerable period of time to keep a radio powered up. In addition, in the context of Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H), not every version change will be relevant for continued reception of a DVB signal. So a DVB-H terminal awaiting an irrelevant table update may waste power unnecessarily.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for methods and systems which allow receivers of digital broadband broadcast signals to avoid wasting power waiting unknown periods of time for potentially irrelevant metadata updates.